Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to location based services and more particularly to user location reporting for location based services.
Description of the Related Art
A location-based service is a software-driven service provided to data network connected mobile devices including smart phones, tablet personal computers and notebook computers. The location-based services processes a location determined for a corresponding mobile device and performs ancillary data processing based upon the determined location. The location-based service can be provided remotely from the mobile device, or the location based service can be included as part of the mobile device. In either circumstance, the location based service can be query-based and provide the end user with useful information based upon a determined location of the mobile device, or the location based service can be push-based and deliver data to the mobile device based upon the determined location.
A location based service requires different interoperable components to function. Essential amongst those components are the mobile device itself, location determining circuitry disposed in the mobile device, such as global positioning system (GPS) sensor and corresponding firmware, a computer communications network over which data pertaining to a determined location can be received by or provided from the mobile device, and an ancillary application executing in the mobile device and processing a determined location in order to transmit or receive geographically relevant data. Other components may include a content provider coupled to the mobile device and enabled to provide content responsive to a determined location for a mobile device.
Location based services typically are associated with individual marketing in which marketing messaging or is provided to each individual mobile device based upon a contemporaneous location determined for each individual mobile device. However, location based services can be of enormous benefit when applied in the enterprise setting. Of particular interest, location based services have been proven helpful in fleet management and logistics in which knowing the precise location of different employees facilitates the determination of the efficient utilization of the different employees. Yet, the prospective use of location based services in the enterprise comes at a cost-privacy. To wit, publicizing the location of an end user to other end users of an ancillary application in the enterprise at times can be so undesirable for the end user so as to discourage the adoption of location based services with respect to the ancillary application in the enterprise.